The situation in England was very tense. King Charles I was seeking increasingly to exercise his control over both parliament and the church. He dissolved parliament in 1627 and in the following year assembled a new one. However, with the new members came John Hampden, Oliver Cromwell and Edward Coke, puritans who would press for a more democratic system. Parliamentarians feared that Charles I’s desire for absolute rule would endanger their hard-earned freedoms. Sir Edward Coke raised the concerned cry of many: ‘I must fly to Magna Charta… the Charter of Liberty’, he said.‘When the king says he cannot allow our liberties of right, this strikes at the root.’ Coke and others resisted the king on this matter, and drew up both the Petition of Right in 1628, and The Case of Proclamations, in which the king was not allowed to be above the law and proclaim what he wanted. It was summed up inthe following line: ‘The King by his proclamation of other ways cannot change any part of the common law, or statute law, or the customs of the realm.’ When Charles Iabolished the English parliament for ten years, and invaded Scotland without its support, he became very unpopular. Not only was the church on a collision course with the crown, but parliament as well.
In 1641 the Civil War broke out between the royalists (cavaliers) and parliamentarians (roundheads). The parliamentarians realized that they needed Scottish help, so John Pym, a leading puritan and democrat, requested that Alexander Henderson, who had been the leader behind the National Covenant of 1638, should draw up a document, which was called the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The purpose of this was to unite the parliaments of Scotland and England, and the presbyterians and puritans, in their struggle for both civil and religious liberties. The Church of Scotland assembly chose Alexander Henderson, Robert Douglas, Samuel Rutherford, George Gillespie, and Robert Baillie, accompanied by the National Covenant lawyer, Sir Archibald Johnston, and the Earl of Cassilis and Lord Maitland. Baillie reported back to the Scottish Assembly, that ‘If any will not believe our report, let them trust their own eyes; for behold, here are the warrant of our words, written and subscribed by the hands of the Clerks of the Parliament of England, and the scribes of the Assembly there.’ Henderson and Rutherford especially became celebrities in England, as crowds packed into churches and venues, and hung on the words of the Scottish theologians.
After the Solemn League and Covenant had been signed by the parliamentarians in Westminster, copies were produced and dispersed in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, so that people of all walks of life could sign it as well. It was even sold in bookshops in Lombard St in London. Despite pressure to conform being a motive for many, multitudes signed the Covenant out of a sincere and supportive attitude. For the presbyterians this was a victory of epic proportions and they rejoiced that their biblical democratic principles had had such an impact. Now both the parliaments of England and Scotland stood side by side, inspired by the puritan and presbyterian ideals. But the years ahead would be filled with war, treachery, compromise, dismay, and eventual established victory in 1688-9, after a long night of darkness.
‘Gather My saints together to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice’ (Psalm 50:5, NKJV).
Image: The Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, signed by members of Newbattle parish near Edinburgh, in the National Museum of Scotland, photo by Paul James-Griffiths.